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Friday, July 5, 2013

Last week as I headed downtown to grab some lunch a man
stopped me on the sidewalk to tell me that a slat on one of park benches
downtown was broken. I thanked him, made a mental note to ask public works to
fix the park bench, and moved on down the road. I didn’t think that much of the
exchange because it happens all of the time. I meet people, they tell me about
something in their city they need fixed or addressed, and I try to remember to
see that it gets done. I think we get most of it done but occasionally a few
things fall through the cracks. I like it when people tell me about things in
their city they would like to see changed. It makes my job easier because I
don’t have to guess about what citizens would like to see happen.

After lunch I returned to my office to find a pile of post
it notes on my desk with names and numbers. This is also pretty normal, and I
set about the task of returning calls. It turned out that one of the calls was
to the man who told me about the bench. When I spoke to him on the phone he
revealed to me that he and his wife are retired, and every Friday they load up
the car and go and visit a small town in South Carolina. They shop in the local
shops, and they eat in the local restaurant, and they enjoy a day exploring our
state’s smaller communities. He wanted to share his impressions of our city
with me.

Are you ready to hear what the stranger said about us,
Clinton? He said that this was one of the cleanest and nicest small towns in
the state. He said the people here were friendlier than any other small town he
and his wife visited. He said our downtown was nice. He said we should be proud
to live here. He said he looks forward to coming back. Now isn’t that exactly
what we want to hear from a visitor? You bet it is.

And it turns out that this guy wasn’t your average visitor.
He is an elected official from one of our state’s largest and fastest growing
counties. He knows what it takes to make a community run, grow, and be
successful.

When you meet a person on the street, or when they visit
your store, you never really know who they are. That stranger two booths over
at the diner could very well be a site consultant hired by a major
manufacturing company to scout out our town for future industrial growth. Think
that never happens? It probably happens more often than you think. At a recent
lecture given to economic developers at Georgia Tech, some of nation’s top site
consultants, the folks that big companies like Caterpillar, 3M, and others look
to for help when determining where to locate factories, admitted that they do just
what the man who stopped me on the street does in order to find the right
community for a project. Turns out, there have been strangers visiting us and
sizing us up for years.

The point is, someone is always watching what we do and
developing an impression of who we are based on our actions. We know this is a
great community. We know our schools are better than our statistics show, we
know the quality of our people, and we know that our city is good place to do
business.

We also know, better than anyone else, the problems our city
faces. Like most people we tend to focus on the problems, primarily because no
one ever fixed a problem or addressed a challenge by ignoring its existence.

We must realize that every day when the sun rises over our
city we are taking the stage to audition for the role of our lifetime. We are
presenting ourselves to strangers in an effort to entice them to believe in us,
to invest in us, and to help us create the community we want for the future.
When we talk negatively about our community we project an image that may put
our future at risk. When we come together to address a problem, reach out to a
stranger, keep our city clean, and help a fellow citizen we project an image
that may change our community for the better.

Each day, every day, we need to defend the image of our
community. Our future depends on it.

There is a fog rolling in. No, it’s not the type of fog that
sometimes drapes our city in cool mist in the mornings making the drive through
town a bit more treacherous. And no, it’s not the fog from the 1980’s horror
flick in which a ghostly fog envelopes a small town bringing ghosts and goblins
that wreak havoc on the town’s people. The fog I am talking about is somewhere
in between.

FOGstands for Fats,
Oils, and Grease, and if you work in the sewer industry, your greatest foes
come from this type of FOG. Fats, oils, and grease are produced in your home as
a natural waste product when you prepare food. If you pour your waste fats,
oil, and grease down the drain, then it gets into your sewer system and the
city’s sewer system and cools. As it cools, it becomes more solid and begins to
clog up the sewer system. When enough grease has built up on the side of the
sewer system walls that sewer cannot flow freely through the system a sewer
backup or overflow can occur. A sewer backup or overflow can push raw sewer out
of a manhole into the streets or it can back up drain pipes in your home and enter
your house. Pretty nasty picture, right?

Our sewer system is one of our greatest assets. When it
works the way it should, things you don’t want in your home are whisked away
from your home and neighborhood. However, when fats, oils, and grease damage
the system the impacts are far reaching. Sewer overflows can damage your home
or property. Sewer overflows can damage the environment. The damage caused by
fats, oils, and grease in our sewer lines results in increased maintenance and
treatment costs, and that directly impacts your pocketbook because as
maintenance costs rise the rate we charge you for sewer maintenance will have
to increase also.

The City of Clinton has implemented a FOG prevention and
control ordinance and will be working closely with local business owners that
have a high potential for creating FOG, such as restaurants, car washes, and
maintenance facilities, to reduce the amount of FOG in our sewer lines. These
businesses will be working closely with the staff in the Department of Public
Works to protect the quality of our sewer system. We are excited about working
with our businesses to help improve the quality of the infrastructure that we
all rely on and look forward to forming new partnerships to improve our
community. However, we need everyone to do their part to help keep your citizen
owned sewer system in good shape and make sure that we can keep our operating
costs as low as possible.

First, do your very best not pour fats, oils, or grease down
the drain into our sewers. Scrape food waste into the trashcan instead of
pouring it down the drain or putting it through your sink disposal. Pour left
over grease into a container and put it in your trashcan. If you are worried
about the smell of grease or the liquid leaking out of your trashcan, pour the
grease ad oils into a lidded container and keep it in your freezer. When the
container is full just toss it out in the trash. Use metal strainers to catch food
waste in your sink before it goes down the drain. Teach your children to put
oils and grease in the trash and not in the sink. Be sure to let grease cool
before putting in your trash can and make sure the grease is in a lidded
container with the lid closed or sealed securely in a bag before placing it in
your curbside trash can.

If you read my column last month, you learned about the
challenges that we face in maintaining our ageing infrastructure. The truth is
that it is your infrastructure. You own it. You helped build it through your
rate payments and tax dollars. Now we need you to help maintain it to keep the
system running, avoid future costly repairs, and keep the sewer utility rates
as low as possible for everyone.

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About the City Manager

Frank Stovall was appointed City Manager in October, 2011. Prior to accepting the appointment, Mr. Stovall served as Clinton's Assistant City Manager for three years as well as the city's Director of Administrative and Community Services. He began his employment with the City in 2008. Mr. Stovall earned a Bachelor's Degree in History and a Master's Degree in Education from Virginia Tech as well as a Master of Public Administration from Clemson University.A former Park Ranger, Frank and his wife enjoy spending time outdoors hiking, kayaking, and exploring the natural beauty of South Carolina.